Overview
Consistently recognized as a leading enforcement defense practice, Ropes & Gray has a long and successful track record of representing clients on the full spectrum of internal investigations and government enforcement matters.
We have represented clients on matters relating to:
- The federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA)
- The federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law
- Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse and pricing issues
- The False Claims Act (FCA) and whistleblower or qui tam litigation
- Consumer protection issues
- The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the UK Bribery Act
- Securities law enforcement
- Financial crimes
- Antitrust enforcement issues
- Economic sanctions and export control issues
- Anti-money laundering issues
- Privacy and data security issues
- Intellectual property crime
- Public corruption and campaign finance enforcement issues
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) issues
Clients rely on us to be their trusted partner both before and after the commencement of enforcement activity, and also look to us to conduct sensitive internal investigations and to provide counseling on risk assessment, prevention and compliance. If the best course of action is trial, we assemble accomplished trial teams that achieve outstanding results for clients.
Leaders in the Field
Our team of enforcement defense lawyers—including partners who excelled as federal prosecutors and enforcement attorneys at U.S. Attorney’s offices, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)— understands the complexities of the global regulatory and enforcement environment and of working with the government.
In addition, some of the nation’s leading corporate and regulatory lawyers, including those in Ropes & Gray’s investment management, private equity, life sciences and health care practice groups, work hand-in-hand with our enforcement attorneys. Clients understand that our ready access to these lawyers means efficient, cutting-edge advocacy when they are facing government investigation and enforcement proceedings.
Comprehensive Capabilities
Our enforcement lawyers aggressively stay at the cutting edge of emerging enforcement and regulatory developments that impact our clients and the risks they face. We also have an in-depth understanding of our clients’ business needs. Clients regularly look to us for guidance with respect to:
- Criminal, civil and administrative investigations and enforcement actions conducted by federal and state law enforcement
- Handling complex parallel proceedings involving simultaneous civil and criminal actions
- Internal investigations
- Establishment and implementation of compliance programs
- Analysis of risk involved in corporate transactions
Experience
Clients from public and privately held companies, to private equity firms and hedge funds, to hospitals and academic medical centers, have turned to us to assist them with many of the most time and resource-intensive investigations conducted by state and federal authorities over the past several years. We also advise individuals, including top officers and directors of corporate clients, in a broad array of industries and professions.
Highlights include representation of:
- A major medical device manufacturer in a closely watched trial involving alleged off-label marketing of a bone growth product. We secured the dismissal of all 13 felony charges against the company following opening statements in exchange for a fine and a plea to a single misdemeanor count.
- Several individuals in connection with investigations by the SEC, CFTC, DOJ, U.K Financial Conduct Authority and Serious Fraud Office, and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority regarding the alleged manipulation of the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and other benchmark rates.
- A leading owner and operator of medium-sized acute care facilities, negotiating a no-cost resolution to a six-year qui tam lawsuit brought by a former employee, following two previous with-prejudice dismissals. We also obtained sanctions against opposing counsel for ethical misconduct.
- An international financial services firm in an SEC investigation into the sale of certain structured products to retail customers.
- A number of hedge funds and related individuals involved in the highly publicized investigation by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York into the use of expert networks and consultants and other means of company research used by hedge fund analysts and portfolio managers.
- Several executives associated with a number of different foreign companies that were the subject of criminal investigations conducted by the Antitrust Division of the DOJ, working in coordination with the Canadian Competition Bureau, the European Commission, and the Japan Fair Trade Commission. The investigations concerned alleged international price-fixing cartels among various Japanese, U.S., and European entities.
- The former associate general counsel of a multinational pharmaceutical company, winning a judgment of acquittal at the close of the government’s case for the former executive who had been charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements to a federal agency based on involvement in responding to an FDA inquiry.
- A former BP PLC drilling engineer and the first individual to be indicted in connection with the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
- Numerous bulge-bracket private equity/institutional investment advisers in evaluating and addressing FCPA risks at both the enterprise and portfolio company levels, in connection with the SEC’s first-ever FCPA sweep of private equity and investment advisers related to their relationships with Sovereign Wealth Funds.
